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Case History: On the Waterfront
Featured
Vessel:
ORV
(oil recovery vessel) Plover
RQ 17.1: Why was the ORV Plover
considered valuable
even though in its history (at
the time of the text publication)
it had never had to skim oil from
near its mooring in Puget
Sound?
I. The Entry of Industrial Materials into the Oceans
terms: PAHs
(toxic polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons)
RQ 17.2 (see also Fig. 17.4): Of
the following, which is the
most significant overall source
of adding industrial products to
the oceans? 1) shipwrecks; 2) direct
discharging of liquid
materials from the coast or ships;
3) airborne pollutants;
4) rivers
II. Oil
terms: aliphatic
vs. aromatic - organic
molecules
RQ 17.3: Why was crisis averted
when the oil tanker, Matsuzake,
ran ashore headed into Puget Sound in 1988?
Featured
Vessels:
Exxon
Valdez, source of 11
million gallons
of spilled crude
oil in Prince
William Sound,
Alaska, 1989
Castillo
de Bellver, still holds record for largest
spill of 78 million gallons, in 1983 off
South Africa
(and this is still smaller than the 240+
million gallons dumped
in the Persian Gulf in
during
the Gulf War in 1991, or the 140 million gallons
released by the burning
oil well, near Ciudad
del Carmen, off Bahia
del Campeche, Mexico).
a) The Effects of Oil on Organisms
terms: MFOs (mixed function oxidases are enzymes many
organisms have for internal
detoxification that are capable
of converting toxic hydrocarbons to harmless substances)
RQ 17.4: How is oil dangerous to
a marine animal such as a bird?
How does it actually cause mortality? Give an example of
a marine organism that actually benefits from the presence
of oil.
b) Behavior of Oil
Spilled at Sea (over
1 billion gallons in last
decade)
terms: slick, mousse, dispersants
(emulsifiers), containment
RQ 17.5: In what ways doe an oil
slick actually attract organisms
to come in contact with it, both from above and below?
RQ 17.6: Compare the advantages
and the disadvantages of applying
dispersants to an oil spill. Under what conditions are their
advantages most likely to exceed their disadvantages? If oil
is especially dangerous at the surface, where it can spread as
slicks and kill birds and fishes, why is promoting its sinking
not always best for long-term recovery?
c) Effects of Oil on Shore Communities
Featured
Vessels:
Torrey
Canyon, spilled oil on 75 km of British
shores in 1967 (12th
biggest spill to date: 38.2
million gallons).
Sea Empress,
spilled
oil in the same area in
1996.
Erika,
killed 200,000 birds in a spill off France
in January, 2000.
Jessica,
spilled oil in the Galápagos archipelago
in January, 2001.
Florida,
was a barge that ran aground in 1969 near
Falmouth, Massachusetts, which fouled 500
acres of salt marsh and 5,000 acres of shallow
sandy bottom with refined No. 2 fuel oil (see
pp. 404-405).
RQ 17.7: Explain how the grounding
of the barge, Florida, near
Cape Cod, Massachusetts, was different from many other spills
in terms of the type of oil spilled, where it was spilled, and
how long it has taken to recover.
RQ 17.8: Why is it often difficult
to measure the impact of oil
spills after about a decade?
d) Limited Effectiveness of Present Cleanup Efforts
RQ 17.9: Based on the experience
of Exxon Valdez and more
recent spills, what are two promising approaches for
promoting the recovery of oil-fouled shores?
e) At Risk by Oil - The Sea Surface
Microlayer
terms: nonpoint sources, surface microlayer
RQ 17.10: What are some "non-point"
sources of oil pollution
in the seas. Even though it is very thin, why can a
persistent surface microlayer of oil remain a toxic problem?
f) Oil and Other Substances
II. Sewage
a) Effect of Sewage on Marine Productivity
terms: eutrophication,
indicator species
RQ 17.11: What are a few observable
affects of sewage dumped
into the ocean, say,
off
the California coast or near the
mouth
of the Thames River near London earlier in this
century?
b) Sewage and Human Health
terms: coliform
bacteria, primary vs. secondary
vs. tertiary treatment
III. Synthetic Hydrocarbons
terms: synthetic hydrocarbons, DDT,
PCBs
a) Pesticides and Seabird Reproductive
Failures
terms: biomagnification
Featured Environmentalist:
Rachel Carson - Scientist and
author of the
landmark books:
Silent
Spring (1962)
The
Sea Around Us (1951)
The Edge of the Sea (1955)
(and others)
More Links: 1
- 2 - 3
- 4
- 5
- 6 - 7
- 8 - 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
Disturbed by the profligate use of synthetic chemical pesticides after
World
War II, Carson reluctantly changed her focus in order to warn the public
about the long term effects of misusing pesticides. In Silent Spring (1962)
she
challenged the practices of agricultural scientists and the government,
and
called for a change in the way humankind viewed the natural world.
Carson was attacked by the chemical industry and some in government as
an alarmist,
but courageously spoke out to remind us that we are a vulnerable part of
the natural world
subject to the same damage as the rest of the ecosystem. Testifying before
Congress in
1963, Carson called for new policies to protect human health and the environment.
Excerpt from "Biography of Rachel Louise Carson" © Linda Lear, 1998 at www.rachelcarson.org
Pre-Silent Spring "green
movement"
RQ 17.12: Explain the relationship
between the use of the pesticide,
DDT, and reproductive failure in brown
pelican and other birds
(even the Bermuda
petrel 1,100 km from the N. American
mainland). Be sure that your explanation includes details
of the phenomenon known as biomagnification. See the Rachel
Carson links above for background on how DDT bans were
accomplished.
b) Persistence in the Environment of
Chlorinated Hydrocarbons
terms: chlorinated hydrocarbons (incl. DDT and PCBs)
c) Heavy Metals
terms: heavy metals
d) Radioactivity
terms: isotope
Click link to return to Lecture
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Forward to Chapter 18
This page created 5/2/01 © D.J. Eernisse, Last Modified 5/7/01